Fred Kaplan has a recommendation:
Whatever President Obama decides on troop levels, the real task at hand is to create legitimacy and build popular support for the Afghan government. The first step is the most crucial: If Karzai is declared the winner, then the United States needs to take extraordinary measures to push him into forming some sort of unified government with the runner-up, Abdullah Abdullah. And extraordinary measures also need to be taken to get Abdullah to go along. (This may be especially difficult, as he has already denounced Karzai's electoral fraud as treasonous.)
By "extraordinary measures" I mean heavy bribery.
The tool of empires everywhere.
The Dish 